Khaleda Zia finally granted bail

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was given interim bail on Monday, more than a month after she had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in a graft case.

The High Court (HC) issued the bail for four months after it had received the copies of the lower court verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.

An HC bench of justice M Enayetur Rahim and justice Shahidul Karim passed the order, saying that the BNP chief is an elderly woman who, the court observed, had a variety of physical complications.

On 8 February, the Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted the former prime minister and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. It was filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2008.

Khaleda Zia's lawyers filed appeal petition with the High Court and sought bail on 20 February, upon receiving the certified copy of the judgement.

She was then kept at a building of the old central jail in Dhaka's Nazimuddin Road.

Expressing satisfaction at the issuance of bail, Khaleda Zia's lawyer Abdur Rezak Khan said she secured bail as per judicial procedure.

However, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said the state side would file a petition with the chamber judge seeking stay in bail order.

Attorney general Mahbubey Alam termed the case sensitive.